Jim, you have found one of the rarest of all Robeson pocketknives. Granted, it is not in the greatest condition, the master blade is down about 30%, and there is some scattered rust pitting.
Let me explain the knife as I understand it. The pattern is referred to as a "carriage knife". The hooked blade served two purposes; the hook was for dislodging stones or such from a horses hoof. The square hole was a "Pres-To-Lite" key. Pres-To-Lite was a company that made fuel oil carriage lamps, and early glass cased storage batteries. The lamps they made burned fuel oil, had a self-contained storage tank, and were gravity fed. They had a stop-cock with a square post control and were supplied with a key, kind of like a skate key. There were several patterns of pocketknives at that time that had a Pres-To-Lite key made into one of the blades. One pattern were four bladed scout/utility knives, another were early "automobilists" knives. Your knife predates any automobilist knives. Knives with Pres-To-Lite keys were manufactured by several different manufacturers.
The punch or awl blade with the patent date was for harness repair. Robeson used this blade on several different patterns of knives. That blade was designed by a man named Cooper, a Robeson employee and is commonly referred to as a "Cooper Punch".
The short screwdriver looking blade was for opening carriage doors. Early high-end personal carriages had doors without handles on the outside. Only the groom or carriageman could open them. They had a slotted tumbler inset into the door that mated with the blade on the knife. It also doubled as a screwdriver for harness repair. Temporary repair of a broken harness could be accomplished with the punch or awl by making holes in the two pieces of a broken harness, then repaired with a nut and bolt, and tightened with the screwdriver.
The master blade was a standard spear shaped pocketknife blade. As I said, the blade on your knife is about 30% down from its original shape.
These knives came with bone handles like yours, and with black hard rubber appearing handles. The majority of these that I've seen were of the black handled variety. I've been collecting Robeson knives since 1988, I've only seen about six of these. The first one I saw was black handled. It was in essentially mint, unused, unsharpened condition. It was at a Knife Show in Springfield missouri in the early 1990's. From the time it was brought into the building, it changed hands three times, the last purchase price being $950.00. I never had a chance at it in the early stages. By the time I was even aware of it, it was already beyond my means.
To AAPK
Thanks for sharing it with us. I have one of the old scouts with the presto lite key blade that Charlie mentioned. Neat little slice of history in my opinion.
to Charlie Noyes for sharing some of his vast knowledge with you and us.
